Hourglass Pot Sizes: Extra Small, Small, Medium or Large

The Hourglass Pot from ferm LIVING comes in four sizes, from a 30 cm tabletop piece to a 73 cm floor planter. They share one waisted silhouette, so the real choice is scale: how wide a plant you want to hold and how high you want to lift it. This guide sets the four side by side and matches each to a plant and a place in the room.

One silhouette, four heights

Every Hourglass Pot is built on the same idea. Two flared volumes meet at a narrow waist, so the pot reads as a sculpted object from every side rather than a plain container. Because the form is close to symmetrical, it can be used either way up. Turned one way, it becomes a raised stand that presents a plant like a bust on a plinth. Turned the other, it gives a roomy container for roots to grow into. The choice depends on the plant, and you can change your mind later.

All four sizes are made from iron, treated for outdoor use and offered in the same four colours: Aluminium, Rust, Cashmere and Black. The Small, Medium and Large are described with a powder-coated matte finish, and ferm LIVING notes that the iron surface develops a natural patina over time. Each pot is fitted with two rubber lids that seal it tightly, which is what lets it stand on a wooden floor or a rug indoors without leaking.

The proportions hold steady across the range. Each pot is close to one and a half times as tall as it is wide, so a group of two or three looks like a single family stepping down in height rather than a mismatched set.

The four sizes compared

The figures below come straight from the product specifications. Weight matters more than it first appears: it tells you how easily a pot can be moved for cleaning or brought inside when the weather turns.

The jump between sizes is not even. Diameter grows by 9 cm from Extra Small to Small and then by 10 cm at each step after, but weight roughly doubles from Medium to Large. The Large is the only one that starts to feel like furniture.

Matching pot diameter to plant size

The most useful measurement is the diameter, because ferm LIVING recommends using an inner pot rather than planting straight into the iron. In practice you keep the plant in its plastic grower pot, or a slightly larger one, and drop it into the Hourglass. Before choosing, measure the grower pot your plant lives in now and leave a little room around it so you can lift it out to water.

Think about the foliage as well as the roots. A plant that spreads wide looks top-heavy in a pot much narrower than its leaves, while an upright plant can sit in a pot that seems almost too small. As a rough guide:

• Ø21 cm: the Hourglass Pot Extra Small suits a trailing pothos, a small fern or a compact succulent, and is light enough to move from shelf to table.
• Ø30 cm: the Hourglass Pot Small takes a medium monstera, a peace lily or a young rubber plant, and works on the floor beside an armchair.
• Ø40 cm: the Hourglass Pot Medium holds an established bird of paradise or a tall snake plant with room to grow.
• Ø50 cm: the Hourglass Pot Large is sized for a fiddle-leaf fig, an olive or a kentia palm.

If a plant sits between two sizes, the stand orientation can help. Used as a raised stand, the narrower end holds a smaller pot higher up, which keeps a modest plant from looking lost on a big base.

Height and where each size works

Height decides where a pot belongs. At 30 cm the Extra Small is a tabletop object: on a dining table or a sideboard it lifts a small plant into view without blocking sightlines across the room. The Small, at 42 cm, is the first size that works on the floor, where it lifts a plant clear of the floor beside a chair or a low table.

The Medium at 59 cm stands on the floor with confidence. It suits a corner that needs some vertical interest, or a hallway where a plant should be seen as you walk in. The Large, at 73 cm, is the size that changes a room. Set beside a sofa, it raises the plant on top to eye level for anyone sitting down, so the leaves sit in the same field of view as conversation rather than at your feet. It does the same job as a side table with a plant on it, in one piece.

Two or three sizes together make the most of the shared silhouette. A Large and a Small side by side create a step in height that reads as deliberate, and the same colour across both keeps the group calm. Mixing colours, for instance Rust with Cashmere, gives a warmer and more relaxed arrangement.

Indoors, outdoors and looking after the iron

Indoors, keep both rubber lids in place. They seal the pot so water from the inner pot stays inside the iron and off your floor. Empty any water that gathers at the bottom after watering, since standing water is what iron dislikes most.

All four sizes are treated for outdoor use, with a few conditions. Outside, remove both lids so excess rainwater can drain away, and keep using an inner pot. Choose a sheltered spot, such as against a wall or under a roof overhang. Bring the pot inside during freezing weather, and empty out standing water to prevent rusting. Here weight becomes practical: the 1.1 kg Extra Small can be carried in with one hand, while the 6.6 kg Large is easier to move with the inner pot lifted out first.

Expect the surface to change a little over time. ferm LIVING notes that the iron develops a natural patina, part of the material's character. If you want the pot to look exactly as it did on day one, keep it indoors.

Which Hourglass size to choose

Choose the Extra Small for a table, shelf or windowsill and a plant that fits in your hands. Choose the Small for the first step onto the floor, beside a chair or at the end of a low sideboard. Choose the Medium for an established plant that needs room and a corner that needs height. Choose the Large when the plant itself is the point: a small tree beside the sofa, raised to where people actually look.

ferm LIVING, founded in Copenhagen in 2006 by Trine Andersen, builds its range around muted colour and organic outlines, and the Hourglass Pot sits comfortably next to its other planting series. See the full ferm LIVING collection for planters, stands and objects to pair with it.